I’ve come back from vacation with a sinus infection, a dead laptop, and multiple overflowing email inboxes — plus I’m one sleeve short of where I wanted to be by the end of our road trip — so I feel like I’m starting off the year already desperately behind! But I have a little Q for You today about your 2016—
I mentioned during the 2015 recap that I’m not setting any specific goals for this year where my knitting and sewing are concerned — but I do intend to carry on with last year’s goal to simply make good choices. Not to cast on or cut into anything without asking myself Will I wear this garment? How does it fit into my wardrobe and lifestyle? Does it fill a gap or is it redundant to things I already have? That sort of thing. But I always love hearing about the goals and challenges you’ve all signed up for or set for yourselves, so that’s my Q today: What are your 2016 maker resolutions?
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on a boat somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean, out of sight of any land, knitting away on Bob’s sweater while my loved ones do some deep-sea fishing. Bob and I escaped to Florida a few days ago for a little R&R and today is our last day. It was not my intention to only blog three times this week, but it turns out my brain REALLY wanted to be on vacation! Sorry about that. But I’ve been making great progress on this sweater. There’s really nothing for knitting productivity like a good road trip, amirite? (I promise to do a post with complete details when I’m done with it, but there’s no pattern — I’m improvising it — and the yarn is O-Wool Balance in Emerald.)
The other thing I’ve been enjoying this week is the #loop2loop hashtag on Instagram (the latest wave of #howiknit, sparked by a post from Kristine). Although it’s often impossible to tell what people are actually doing because they’re going too fast, it is utterly fascinating to me how many billions of ways there are to pick up two needles and a piece of yarn and proceed to make knitted fabric. Did you know there’s such a thing as continental throwers?! Amazing. If you have nothing to do this weekend, pull up that feed and start watching. You’ll be agape for hours …
If you have a cable sweater as swoony as this one photographed by Vanessa Jackman, and the perfect pale cocoon coat to go over it, what better to complement it with than the ultimate stockinette scarf? This one is as simple as can be, but striking because of its scale and how nicely it plays with others. It almost looks like it’s made from flat felt instead of yarn, or something, but what you or I would want for our version is some mega yarn, such as Loopy Mango’s Big Loop merino, and a pair of US50 knitting needles. Then all you need to do is figure out your gauge and multiply that by how wide you want your scarf to be — e.g., if you’re at 1.5″ per stitch, 8 stitches would make a 12″ wide scarf. Work in stockinette will you run out of yarn or reach your desired length, whichever comes first!
For this super simple, super warm hat, you need approximately 190-200 total yards of worsted-weight yarn held triple. By knitting with three strands, rather than a single strand of superbulky, you get to create the sweet little braided loop detail up top. You can either wind off three balls of 65 to 70 yards each (i.e., one half skein of Lark per ball), and knit with them held triple. Or, for the safer and easier approach, wind your yarn as usual and use the Navajo Ply method to create the tripled strand as you go. If you Navajo Ply, when you get near the end of the crown decrease section, pull out a crazy-long loop — like 6 feet — to be 100% sure you can finish the knitting and break the long tails for the braid without encountering the bend in your loop. I’d also recommend splicing on the second skein when you come to it.
Materials:
2 skeins Quince and Co. Lark (134 yards / 123 meters per 50g skein, pictured in Sabine) or approximately 195-200 yards worsted-weight yarn, held triple throughout (see note above)
16″ circular needle and set of DPNs in size needed to match gauge (suggested size US13/9mm)
16″ circular needle two sizes smaller for ribbing (suggested size US11/8mm)
3 stitch markers and 1 contrasting Beginning of Round marker
tapestry needle for weaving in ends
Measurements:
Gauge: 10 sts and 18 rounds = 4″ in stockinette stitch
Size: 18″ circumference at brim (unstretched); 8″ tall
DIRECTIONS
Using smaller needle and the long-tail method, and holding three strands of yarn together throughout the pattern, cast on 44 sts; place BOR marker and join for working in the round.
Work k2/p2 ribbing until piece measures 2.5″ from cast-on edge.
Switch to larger needle and stockinette stitch: knit all stitches, all rounds, until piece measures 5″ from cast-on edge. (For a slouchier hat, knit more rounds before beginning crown shaping.)
Shape crown Setup round: *k2tog, k7, SSK, place marker; repeat from * to end of round. (8 sts decreased; 36 remain)
Round 1: Knit Round 2: *k2tog, knit to 2 sts before marker, SSK, slip marker; repeat from * to end of round.
Repeat last two rounds (switch to DPNs when needed) until 3 sts remain between the markers.
Next round: *k2tog, k1, slip marker; repeat from * to end. (8 sts remain)
Next round: *k2tog, drop marker; repeat from * to end. (4 sts remain)
Next round: k2tog, break yarns leaving an 8-10″ tail of each strand; thread all three strands onto tapestry needle, thread them through the remaining three sts and pull to cinch hat closed.
Create braid Remove the strands from the tapestry needle and braid them loosely for about 2″. Holding the braid securely, form a loop with the three strands (right at the end of the braid), pass the tails through and pull tight to secure braid in the knot. Now thread the tails back onto the tapestry needle and pass them down through the center top of the hat — it will stop at the knot, leaving you with a braided loop atop the hat and the tails inside. Now weave in your ends, block as desired, and wear it in good health!
Hey, happy new year! I had decided not to make any sort of blog or knitting resolutions this year, as it’s always depressing to go back and see where I fell short. But then I went and looked at last year’s new year’s day post, and this was the nut of it:
So my goal for this year is to choose wisely. I feel like I’ve gotten much better about picking projects and materials that are worthy of my precious making time. I want to make better, not more. And now that I have the space to do it, I want to really, truly sew. The biggest personal shift for me this year was the crystallization of a desire to know where my clothes come from, whether I’ve made them myself or bought them from small-batch producers. But most of all, I want to make them — to the extent that life will allow.
What do you know! That part I think I can feel pretty damn good about. Although, remember that whole fantasy about how this week was gonna go? How I’d work a few hours in the morning, sew all afternoon, and knit in the evening? Yeah, HAHAHAHA! I did sew a lovely muslin last Saturday, worked all day Sunday, then put in the usual 12-14 hour days all this week. My making has amount to 4 rows of Bob’s sweater. Oy! So this week has been a bit discouraging, but I’m proud of all I sewed and knitted this year, and how much of it has resulted in truly useful garments.
Anyway, no resolutions this year, but I do want to give you some news — a few different heads-ups. First: You guys really surprised me and endeared yourselves to me with your enthusiasm over the army green Field Bag. I thought I was ordering that one for me and DG and a few other weirdos, but it wound up running neck and neck with the gorgeous grey throughout the holiday season. Unfortunately, last week when I placed an order for more of the army green canvas, I was informed that it’s deadstock. My order that day cleaned them out. So we’re down to the last two batches of army green bags:
1. The penultimate batch is mid-progress — half of them are at Fringe Supply Co. right now for you to jump all over, and the other half of this batch will be listed at the beginning of next week.
2. The final batch will be sewn up (if all goes as planned) in time for me to take them to Stitches West in February! I wasn’t planning to do West this year, but Veronika Jobe at YOTH asked me to set up a Fringe pop-up in her killer booth, and I’ve said yes to that. So the last of the army green bags will be with me at that show. If any survive the weekend, I’ll put them in the webshop the following week.
So basically, if you are going to Stitches West, plan to hit me up first thing! If you’re not, do what you can to nab one from the webshop now.
And in addition to West, I also want to let you know DG and I will have the full-blown Fringe booth once again at Stitches South here in Nashville the first weekend of April. I’d love to see you at one or both shows!
Last year, I remember being so shocked to discover that I had only finished six projects within the span of the year. This year I’m equally shocked to find I finished thirteen! But this having been my Year of Sleevelessnees and of holding yarns triple, I guess it’s not that surprising! And it’s really more a dozen than a baker’s dozen, since my first FO of the year — my Amanda cardigan from the first Fringe and Friends Knitalong — was knitted in the last four months of 2014 (the reason for that year’s low count) and only finished in January of 2015. But still, I’m pretty proud of this list. Even more for the success of the items than the quantity:
– My Bellows is easily the most-worn handknit of my four-year knitting career.
– My “vintage waistcoat” was modified from a WWII-era knit-for-the-troops pattern, and led to the full reworking that is my Anna Vest pattern — my proudest moment of the year.
– The green vest was a test-knit of the vest pattern for the Fringe Cowichan-style Knitalong, which was followed by my black/natural/grey Cowichan-ish vest. That’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had knitting, and a garment I adore. (Although I still need to do something with the armhole edges.)
– The purple shawl for my grandmother’s 90th birthday may (or may not) have been the last shawl I’ll ever knit, but I loved having that to give to her, regardless. And as a profoundly unexpected bonus, I was pretty thrilled when Instagram asked if they could use my cast-on photo in the promo spot on the Explore page to promote 25 great knitters to follow.
– The two versions of my sleeveless turtleneck — camel and black — were super fun to knit, and although I’ve tried your patience, I’m flattered by everyone who has been begging for the pattern. Getting that written and tech edited is at the top of my to-do list for the new year.
– I’m a little bummed to have only finished 4 of the 6 Fringe Hatalong hats by the year’s end, but I’m also happy to still have the other two ahead of me! Pictured are my Audrey, L’Arbre, Hermaness Worsted and Laurus. And I love that my niece claimed L’Arbre while modeling it for me and Bob claimed Laurus as soon as it was off the needles. I couldn’t be happier with the range of patterns I wound up with for the Hatalongs, and am so grateful to all of the designers and knitters who participated with such enthusiasm! NOTE: It’s never too late to cast on for any of them!
– Which just leaves that one last hat up there, which was a quickie I knitted to use up the leftovers from the black turtleneck and turned out super cute. I’ll be along with the simple pattern for that one any minute.
Thank you so much for all of the support and encouragement you guys have given me this year. You’re always very generously telling me how much you get out of the blog — and I appreciate that so much — but it’s a two-way street, you know. Happy new year to you! And I’ll see you in 2016—
Just about every week of every year, I post about the knitting patterns that are occupying my thoughts — whether they’re new or just newly appealing to me — under the heading of New Favorites. Some are content to be admired for just that moment, while others bully their way right into my queue. Interestingly, this year not a single New Favorites pick actually made it onto my needles (Not yet, anyway. I still have projects in my queue from last year’s and the year before’s.) Oh no, wait: I did cast on Linda — I just didn’t get very far because I need to switch yarns. Given that it’s the one I cast on and sketched into my Fashionary queue, and that I’ve mentioned it on the blog at least 92 times this year, that must have been the absolute most magnetic pattern for me this year! I’m still dying to try my hand at mosaic knitting, and this is still my favorite colorwork pattern of the year. But what follows are the patterns I’d most like to not lose track of as more and more new ones distract us from that which we already loved:
PATTERN OF THE YEAR
Although I give myself a 1% chance of ever actually knitting them, I think Dianna Walla’s Aspen socks/legwarmers, pictured up top, is the best pattern of the year, so I wanted to mention that. It’s inspired by historical garments and yet perfectly new and original, and just completely enticing and memorable. (It’s from the Farm to Needle book that, disclosure, I also have a pattern in.) If you haven’t seen Dianna’s blog post about the inspiration behind the pattern, take a minute to give it a read.
(as seen in From Farm to Needle)
SWEATER OF THE YEAR
For me, Norah Gaughan’s Marshal is the sweater of the year, despite the fact that the neck treatment doesn’t quite work somehow. If (when) I were to knit it, I think I might make it into more of a bomber jacket — with a crewneck and curved neckband. That, or keep the V-neck and just leave off the neck flap, which looks fantastic from the back but which I love less from the front. Regardless, I’m completely crazy about the pocket design, texture and placement, and the gauge shift from the body to the pockets — really fantastic use of simple detail to elevate a design.
(as seen in The chevrons of BT Winter ’15)
The rest of the sweaters I’m keeping on the don’t-forget list are good, hardworking wardrobe basics that also look reasonably interesting to knit—
top left:Grille by Bonnie Sennott (as seen in Grille) top right:Trace by Shellie Anderson (as seen in Trace) bottom left:Sanford by Julie Hoover (as seen in The chevrons of BT Winter ’15) bottomright:Butte by Pam Allen (as seen in Big ol’ cozy pullovers)
